My Name is Paul H Cosentino. I started this Blog in 2011 because of what I believe to be wrongdoings in town government. This Blog is to keep the citizens of Templeton informed. It is also for the citizens of Templeton to post their comments and concerns.

Paul working for you.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Here are some snippets from the management letter

Here are some snippets from the management letter.

"This lack of consistent, strong leadership has severely impacted the Town's ability to operate financially at an optimum level; and this has directly impacted most of the Town's critical financial function. ...In fact, the Town has had four Town Accountants, three Treasurer/Collectors and three Town Administrators since 2012." Management Letter p.3, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"The 2013 and 2014 financial records had to be reconstructed almost completely from scratch....The Town was unaware of its appropriation balances due to the deficiency in its accounting records; this led to appropriation deficits totaling almost $800,000 over four years. ...The Town expended funds on a major school capital project without a borrowing due to the bonding issue described above. This has led to a $1.3 million DEFICIT in the project fund." Management Letter p.4, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"Illegal interfund borrowings were used to fund annual operations in at least two years." Management Letter p.4, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

" Beginning in 2013 and continuing through fiscal year 2015, the process of budget monitoring was reckless and essentially nonexistent. In fact, the Town was unaware of these deficits until years later, especially for fiscal year 2013 and 2014 when the entire years' records were reconstructed." Management Letter p.9, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

" In addition, we determined that the budgets as recorded in the general ledger do not at all times match the Town Meeting votes, which served to only compound the challenges with monitoring the budget." Management Letter p.9, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"Subsequent to year-end, it was determined that the Town Treasurer in those years had been using available cash from BAN proceed intended to fund capital projects. Additionally, we determined that cash forecasts had never been prepared by the Treasurer's Office; therefore, it was difficult for the Town to understand its cash flow requirements." Management Letter p.11, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"THE TOWN HAS FAILED TERRIBLY IN MANAGING ITS CAPITAL PROJECTS AND CORRESPONDING FUNDING:"Management Letter p13, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

" A separate article also related to the Elementary School authorized the remainder of the project costs around $47 million to be subsidized from available funds or borrowings. the Town, to date has spent approximately $2.5 million. Of this amount, nearly $1.3 million was subsidized by the MSBA; the remainder is a deficit of over $1.2 million."Management Letter p.13, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"Since the Town allowed 4 years to lapse between audits, it had no access to the bond market; accordingly it used available cash. Since all cash was commingled, it is not clear which bucket of cash was used to fund the expenses. This is important to understand as only cash that can fund a capital project can be from the General Fund, Stabilization Fund or the capital project itself. This placed stress on the already precarious General Fund cash position, and if other funds such as Community Preservation or Sewer Betterments cash were used, THIS WOULD BE ILLEGAL." Management Letter p.14, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

"We do not believe the current Treasurer or anyone in the Treasurer's office have the skill set necessary to financially manage the LARGEST PROJECT IN THE TOWN'S HISTORY..." Management Letter p.14, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

Since all cash was commingled, it is not clear which bucket of cash was used to fund the expenses.

One has to think the Light department funds would be a large enough amount to cover the shortfalls. We did go out for a short term note one time and i wonder why it wasn't spoken about in the letter from the audit company.

"We do not believe the current Treasurer or anyone in the Treasurer's office have the skill set necessary to financially manage the LARGEST PROJECT IN THE TOWN'S HISTORY..." We "should" listen to the professionals opinion.

What we do on Saturday will effect the taxpayers in this town for many years to come. People will be paying for this mess long after I am gone. That is, if they can still afford it, and can continue to live here. This is serious, more serious than most people realize. Please show up on Saturday ! This is the future of your kids and their kids we are talking about.

It truly is ironic that some of our selectman, who don't follow rules, cannot add, blame others and decide factual information we paid for a community is irrelevant and refuses to see reality is pushing for the school project to go forward.This level of ignorance will kill this town.

The below post is from the Templeton Elementary School PTO and I support defeating this citizens petition article at town meeting so this project can move forward!In order to do this, we must have your presence and support at next Saturday's, May 13th Annual Town Meeting. Our children's future and our community's future are depending on us! I know it's been a long road, but we are there and it's right within our grasp. The paperwork to submit for borrowing is ready to go the day after town meeting as long as this warrant article is voted down.Please, spread the word and be there to help the Elementary School building project continue. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~New School Project!We are always eager to hear an update on the new school project. We have heard time and again of delays. Often we as parents feel powerless while we wait for the battle to subside. This is not true, we are needed…Recently, Senator Anne Gobi arranged a meeting between Town and School Officials and the MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) to discuss the new Elementary School Building Project. The MSBA stated that they are “100%” behind the new school project, and given the results of the Town’s financial audits, both the Department of Revenue as well as the Town’s auditing firm Roselli, Clark & Associates, feel that Templeton is financially stable enough to start the process of “borrowing” money to (finally) start the process of building the new school.All of this is not “good” news; it is GREAT news.That being said, the MSBA is concerned that there is (yet) another citizen’s petition on the May 13th Town Meeting that is (once again) attempting to rescind the override that will cancel the funding to build our new Elementary School.As the Town’s auditing firm stated, “Templeton has never been this close to build our new school.” We need your help!!! We (once again) need to show our support by voting this Warrant Article down.Please make every effort to attend the Town Meeting on May 13th to support our children.